"And I'm just a child playing cops and robbers forever. Please forgive me if I cry." -James Tate, from Return to the City of White Donkeys

Selfless

I went into the office on Friday and noticed Carol missing from the cubicle next to mine. I asked around, and nobody had seen her or had heard from her. That weekend I went on a trip to a friend’s lake house, where we swam and did boat-lake things. On Monday, both Steve and Vance were also missing. On Tuesday, Nikki, Brian, Kathleen, and Sarah were missing. None of them called in sick, none of them had said anything about going anywhere. I began to feel as if I was being watched. Where is everybody I said to Jeff. Oh, you haven’t heard he said. What haven’t I heard about I said. It’s an epidemic he said. What’s an epidemic I said. The invisibility he said. It’s spreading. It will have all of us he said. On Wednesday, Jeff was missing too. We were dropping off the face of the earth one at a time, and nobody seemed to be speaking about it. The local news channel was showing a car chase, and the national news channel was all political commentary. No news as to the invisibility. On Thursday, I went to the office and sat down at my cubicle and started typing. Nobody came into the office that day. There was a draft running through the building that was as loud as a scream in that silence. As I was getting ready to leave, a man in a black suit walked up to my desk, accompanied by five soldiers with machine guns, all wearing strange looking masks on their faces. Who are you he said. I’m Micah, I work here I said. Haven’t you heard he said. It’s an epidemic he said. What’s an epidemic I said. One of the soldiers hit me over the head with their machine gun, knocking me unconscious. I woke up at my house on Friday, and walked outside. The newspaper hadn’t been delivered yet, even though it was well past that time. The air was cool, and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. I looked up and down my silent street, wondering which of my neighbors might be trying to talk to me now. I imagined the masses of people that must have been out on the street, panicked, running around, screaming. I sipped my coffee and went back inside, and watched the static on the television until I forgot that I was supposed to go into the office that day.